So I am in the process of selling the van. It is cool but it doesn't get me where I need to go without pieces breaking or falling off. I'm going to get a serious off road truck and build it into a pop up RV with my choices instead of letting some other person design it for me.

Question 1. Which truck should I build on?

Ram Power Wagon (goes anywhere but light payload)
Ram 2500 rebel (goes almost everywhere but with a huge payload)
Ford 250 Tremor (does everything well but nothing special, pro-power is enticing on this type of build)
2500 AT4 or AT4x (meh)

All of these have negatives but I think the 2500 Rebel with the 6.4 bed has the fewest and none of the negatives are a deal breaker. Tell me I am wrong or right. What say you Auto Board?

Are you doing the labor to build the camper yourself?

If no, then: https://earthroamer.com/ltx-explore/

If yes, then: https://aev-conversions.com/pages/vehicles-fxl

Money is no object, right?

https://earthroamer.com/

My first purchase post lottery win will be an EarthRoamer.

Naveronski bet me to it.

How big? How off-road? You need a bathroom and towing capacity? Do you need to fit down narrow trails? Do you need to take the camper off and drive it to work during the week? You want to be able to drive webster pass or to holy Cross City? What is "the van"?

You could get two of those for the price of an EarthRoamer.

I see earthroamers frequently, but never farther off pavement than ski hill parking lots. They are insanely large, I can think of many better ways to spend half a million bucks

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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https://earthroamer.com/

My first purchase post lottery win will be an EarthRoamer.

Naveronski bet me to it.

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Well yeah, lottery money I'm buying a small island.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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How big? How off-road? You need a bathroom and towing capacity? Do you need to fit down narrow trails? Do you need to take the camper off and drive it to work during the week? You want to be able to drive webster pass or to holy Cross City? What is "the van"?

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Good questions. I guess they are pretty important when choosing the truck base.

The parameters...

Full size, not a Tacoma and not a 5.5 bed
no more than 3 inch lift
probably 295/75/17
Imogene pass but not Black Bear pass stuff
Tune M1 or Four Wheel Campers Project M
Every item inside needs to be modular/portable including toilet, shower, kitchen
Propane heater
Portable A/C

I do not need to drive it to work
I do a LOT of bike trips, kayak trips, and ski trips
I don't tow much

I should also consider the half tons since I am building as light as possible

The Ex Officio Director said:

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On a serious note, with the problems these new trucks are having, would it not be better to purchase a older modal truck and make it an offroad RV.

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My dad has a 2003 7.3 F350 single cab, single rear wheel 4wd lifted 3 inches with a manual transmission and a flatbed. Even has manual locking hubs. He won't sell it to me. I could build the most awesome RV on that rig. It has like 23k miles, he never uses it.

Quigley e250? Every increase in size/amenities decreases off road capability and overall versatility (imo) without a huge cost increase.

Look at realistic use. We've had our camper van for 13 years. Always wanted a u joint or quigley. In Reality would have need 2-3 times and nice to have another 2-3 and that's over hundreds of days of camping. Most, if not all of those were muddy boat ramps in late summer.

If I had the bandwidth I'd build another camper in a heartbeat, but not much different than the last. Kids have gotten bigger, we don't like cooking inside, and mostly camp where there's a bathroom.

Happy to watch you spend your money!

I NEED THE ULTIMATE RIG THAT CAN GET ME TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!!

also I need a potty

CactusThomas said:

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I NEED THE ULTIMATE RIG THAT CAN GET ME TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!!

also I need a potty

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This reminds me of the guys I hunt with who refuse to poop outside of their RV but God forbid you put toilet paper in the black tank.

I don't "overland" but I do go out to isolated unimproved cam sites that require 4WD access and camp for a few days at a time, usually solo.

Reliability is critical. You don't want to be stranded doing field repairs or having to organize an extraction with minimal resources.

Weight is also big. Stresses your rig, kills mileage, gets you stuck easier, etc.

If your base vehicle is reliable and has the capacity you need, you'll be fine with it.

I have kept it simple with my old Xterra, with it just being me. I bring a tent but sometimes it is just storage when I am camped as I often sllep inside the Xterra. I have a tailgate enclosure tent I can use for more inside space. I keep everything organized in stackable plastic tubs I can take out and leave at camp for day trips from my campsite.

You don't want it to be too unpleasant driving on highways because that's what it will mostly be doing in the USA.

Waterski02 said:

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Look at realistic use. We've had our camper van for 13 years. Always wanted a u joint or quigley. In Reality would have need 2-3 times and nice to have another 2-3 and that's over hundreds of days of camping. Most, if not all of those were muddy boat ramps in late summer.

If I had the bandwidth I'd build another camper in a heartbeat, but not much different than the last. Kids have gotten bigger, we don't like cooking inside, and mostly camp where there's a bathroom.

Happy to watch you spend your money!

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Good post and you hit on a lot of the things I think about. It all comes down to where we live and what we do.

Right now my camper van has a built in kitchen, full wet bath with black tank, a queen bed, and drop down full size bed. We never use the kitchen (cook outside), avoid using the bathroom except on long trips, and never use the drop down bed. That bathroom has a ceramic toilet with macerator, plumbing, full 3/4 inch plywood built, gray tank, and black tank. That has got to be 500 pounds total, and we try our best to never use it. The kitchen has a stove that has never been used, a microwave that has never been used and 5 feet of cabinets that really aren't used. I could replace the entire kitchen with my portable camping kitchen (that I already have) that fits in 1 box.


I live in Colorado and 99% of campsites are full the entire summer season. But all national forest land and BLM land is open to camping. I can't get to most of it in the van, even with the lift. But if I were to get an over-cab camper shell and build it out the way I want, then I could.


Last thing about why to make the change is the type of RVing/camping we do. My son and I do a lot of mountain biking, kayaking, and skiing. On most of our trips there is no asphalt for the last 10 miles.


I'm going to backcountry offroad expo in Castle Rock tomorrow. I will take some pics.

https://backcountryoffroadexpo.com/pages/colorado-expo?srsltid=AfmBOopz72FdFwk7zQ90mIxAgTNlr77x_mjl-Fflk1Mh5j4TpiqaBhxa

Get a gas tremor f250 and start from there. 3k payload.

Sounds like you just really need a bed and storage.

What is the current van? Sprinter platform? How important is it to you to sleep inside? Takes a lot of work to insulate a pickup bed/camper enough for winter camping and you are still very limited on headroom. You'd probably be better off with a hot tent setup for winter. I've slept in all kinds of converted suvs/truck bed campers and until you step up to a slide in it always sucks worse than a big tent with an air mattress (like guest bed type) or cot

Corps_Ag12 said:

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CactusThomas said:

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I NEED THE ULTIMATE RIG THAT CAN GET ME TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!!

also I need a potty

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This reminds me of the guys I hunt with who refuse to poop outside of their RV but God forbid you put toilet paper in the black tank.

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Im just the opposite - would rather **** in the woods than in my little hunting camper. Cover it with dirt and a big rock and I'm done versus trying to get a black tank properly flush out

Amen

knoxtom said:

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Waterski02 said:

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Look at realistic use. We've had our camper van for 13 years. Always wanted a u joint or quigley. In Reality would have need 2-3 times and nice to have another 2-3 and that's over hundreds of days of camping. Most, if not all of those were muddy boat ramps in late summer.

If I had the bandwidth I'd build another camper in a heartbeat, but not much different than the last. Kids have gotten bigger, we don't like cooking inside, and mostly camp where there's a bathroom.

Happy to watch you spend your money!

---

Good post and you hit on a lot of the things I think about. It all comes down to where we live and what we do.

Right now my camper van has a built in kitchen, full wet bath with black tank, a queen bed, and drop down full size bed. We never use the kitchen (cook outside), avoid using the bathroom except on long trips, and never use the drop down bed. That bathroom has a ceramic toilet with macerator, plumbing, full 3/4 inch plywood built, gray tank, and black tank. That has got to be 500 pounds total, and we try our best to never use it. The kitchen has a stove that has never been used, a microwave that has never been used and 5 feet of cabinets that really aren't used. I could replace the entire kitchen with my portable camping kitchen (that I already have) that fits in 1 box.


I live in Colorado and 99% of campsites are full the entire summer season. But all national forest land and BLM land is open to camping. I can't get to most of it in the van, even with the lift. But if I were to get an over-cab camper shell and build it out the way I want, then I could.


Last thing about why to make the change is the type of RVing/camping we do. My son and I do a lot of mountain biking, kayaking, and skiing. On most of our trips there is no asphalt for the last 10 miles.


I'm going to backcountry offroad expo in Castle Rock tomorrow. I will take some pics.

https://backcountryoffroadexpo.com/pages/colorado-expo?srsltid=AfmBOopz72FdFwk7zQ90mIxAgTNlr77x_mjl-Fflk1Mh5j4TpiqaBhxa

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get one of these and a used lifted V6 Tacoma to pull it.
https://mammothoverland.com/

knoxtom said:

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Ram Power Wagon (goes anywhere but light payload)

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FYI the new Power Wagon diesel has a much higher payload than the gas.

If I win the lottery there will be signs:

You must really like solar panels!

F450 wide track or GTFO

Went riding at Floyd Hill this morning and on the way back I stopped in Castle Rock for a little backcountry festival. It was mostly van builds including Remote Vans, StoryTeller, AVC, and a few others. They can now put 35 inch tires on a Sprinter so of course almost every build was with 35s.

There were a few interesting truck builds, almost every one was on a flatbed. I saw a friend from Manitou with his Jeep Gladiator with 40s and a Bison Overland living on a flatbed. That truck will go anywhere. The nicest build was a Tune M1 sitting on a flatbed Chevy Colorado. The pop tops have a good amount of room inside and with the cold weather kits and heaters they probably do pretty good in cold weather.

I also talked to a few people about electrical builds. Consensus is Xantrex, Ecoflow, and Victron are the only ways to go. Ecoflow is so clean but it is also so expensive and since everything is in the same box, if one thing goes wrong you are screwed.

Anyway couple pics of builds.